Brisket's "tough" to cook... Get it?

Brisket is worldly known as the toughest cut of meat to cook, and I know why. More than once I've had disastrous results where it turned out just dang chewy. Shoe leather. Beef Jerky. Rubber. I was pretty disillusioned the first time I tried it last summer, it literally FELL apart when I cut it, and man was it tasty. EASY right? And I didn't DO anything. I thought others brisket was often plain, so I spiced it up a bit with off the shelf BBQ rubs, and I swabbed it in Maple Syrup cause I thought that would give it a nice sweet crispy crust. I didn't monitor my temperature much, kept it at around 225-250 like I do my pulled pork, but I never measured the temp of the meat, I just let it ride. And it was great! But the next time I tried to duplicate it, Ew. Call for pizza.

So what went wrong? I can only think I got lucky the first time, and a few mixed times after that. The times in between were what was frustrating. For this adventure, I did a little research. And it turns out SO easy and explainable. Seems like it's a fairly well accepted fact that brisket meat needs to hit 185-190 degrees so that the fat breaks down and makes it really tender. Mine had been on there for about 8-9 hours, the grill temp pretty steady at 250. I was worried though cause the chunk of brisket was looking black and felt pretty hard when I poked it, meaning NOT tender. It looked done, it looked OVER done. Matter of fact, I *know* it was done and almost screwed it all up by yanking it off and taking it inside to sit.

Instead, I did the right thing and took it's temp. Hmmm. 160. That's not good. The coals had gone down a bit, flirting with 200, so I had to stir the coals and add more wood (I use apple and hickory by the way) and charcoal. I got the temp back up and had some patience (where I got that, who knows) and at about 190, I took the lump of dark meat off and on a plate and in to sit, wrapped in foil. Everyone KNOWS you have to do this. (Note 1). 20-30 minutes later, I was slicing about the best brisket I've ever had! It was hard to tell the difference between pulled pork and this. And tasty tasty. Tracy says she hates brisket, but this time she was raving. We simply had it on buns, and I like a little extra spice rub to sprinkle.

When I cook a big hunk of meat, I like to think ahead on what's going to happen to the leftovers. In brisket's case, we're copying a sammich we love from a great Kansas City BBQ joint called Oklahoma Joe's. The sammich is a Z-Man, made up of sliced brisket, a coupla fried onion rings covered with a slice of Provolone cheese, a dab of sweet BBQ sauce all on a Kaiser bun. To cut slice brisket properly, ya gotta do it "against the grain" and use a meat slicer. Thanks to Ray and Becky's housewarming gift, we have one! Onion rings in beer batter, and french fries double fried (fry, sit, fry).

Note 1: You really do! If you cut a piece of meat right after it's left the heat, the juices will run right out. If it sits a bit, they are drawn back in, making a moister more tender meat.